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General Director David Gockley’s final season features some of his favorites: Verdi’s Don Carlo, Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, Janáček’s Jenůfa and a new production of Carmen. Secure your seats and subscribe today!

San Francisco Opera invites you and your family to attend FREE screenings of our Opera-in-an-Hour Movies presented throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. To learn about where you can catch a screening of our family friendly operas, click here.

We all do it. You're out with friends, having dinner or going to a show or having a drink after work. What are the chances that someone in the group will pull out a smartphone and snap a picture to put on Facebook or Twitter? We like to show our friends and family what we are doing and we like to have something to help us remember a fun evening out. If this sounds like something you've done (or even if you haven't...yet) then our Snap & Post to Win contest is going to be the easiest drawing you've ever entered! Want the chance to win a fantastic night out—dinner and a show at San Francisco Opera? Read on.

Nixon in China is one of a handful of operas that mean the most to me. I first heard Nixon when I was at Dartmouth College in the spring of '94 during an opera survey class. The professor only played the "News" aria, but that was all I needed to hear, I was hooked. I instantly bought the recording and played it all day every day and when I finally got the score many years later, it revealed a whole new dimension to the music that I could finally play and sing to myself.

Many performing venues, from theaters to symphony halls to opera houses, are experimenting with inviting audience members to tweet their impressions during a live performance. The phenomenon of Tweet Seats is taking hold, with varying success and acceptance. We have been delighted with the Twitter activity during our Opera at the Ballpark performances, where the big space and relaxed atmosphere make it less distracting to see people focused on their small screens along with the big one.

It may only appear in one short scene at the beginning of the opera, but unquestionably one of the stars of every production of The Magic Flute is the serpent that pursues Prince Tamino and is ultimately killed by the Three Ladies. Because our new hi-tech Magic Flute production is so heavily based on projections and digital images (8 projectors!), you might assume that the serpent chasing poor Tamino would simply be an image projected on the wall--but designer Jun Kaneko had a different idea! [Left: Jun Kaneko's design drawing of Tamino facing the two-headed snake]

When we found out that San Francico Opera Chorus Member Elisabeth Rom's brother is Set Designer Erhard Rom for Nixon in China, we immediately asked her to write a blog post. So glad we did! Elisabeth shares how she became a chorus member at SF Opera (with a little help from her brother) and how with their busy schedules they still make time for family.

Introduction

Backstage at San Francisco Opera is a fascinating, fast-moving, mysterious and sacred space for the Company’s singers, musicians, dancers, technicians and production crews. Musical and staging rehearsals are on-going, scenery is loaded in and taken out, lighting cues are set, costumes and wigs are moved around and everything is made ready to receive the audience. From the principal singers, chorus and orchestra musicians to the creative teams for each opera, in addition to the many talented folks who don’t take a bow on stage, this blog offers unique insight, both thought-provoking and light-hearted, into the life backstage at San Francisco Opera.